Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

Al Batzdorff sent me a link a few days ago to an amazing site: panoplanet.net/synagogues (Click on each synagogue to open it to the full screen. Click and move cursor around to get panoramic view. Right-click and move cursor to go up and down. )

It reminded me of the book the Batzdorffs donated to the library a few months ago. It is titled “The architecture of the European synagogue,” by Rachel Wischnitzer. The website above is a true multimedia experience on the diversity of the synagogues around the world. The book is a different kind of experience with its black and white blueprints, drawings and photographs (See one below from Budapest). But the book also gives you a lot of background information in hundreds of synagogues in the Old World. I for one enjoy the touch, look-and-feel, end smell of old books, like this one that was published 44 years ago. I think most of you would also appreciate what you can learn about not just architecture, but the history of European Jewry from this book.